01.04.2022 | Wednesday Humpday

A bit of a weather swing here in the Carondelet Garden on this fourth day of the new year.  We had record-breaking high temperatures yesterday and today it is back to winter.  Such a Saint Louis thing.  If you live here long enough, you will have the experience of short sleeves in the early afternoon and a major snowstorm by dinnertime.  

My Japonica is looking a little worse for the wear.  I'm not too worried about it just yet, but I do love this member of the Camelia family.  We went to the Missouri Botanical Garden yesterday and spent most of our time in the English Woodland Garden.  It is my favorite part of Shaw's Gardens.  They have several experimental Camelias that are looking quite nice.  They are just about ready to burst into bloom.  That's the amazing thing about this lovely plant, they bloom in January.  Such an unexpected gift!

Unexpected gifts.  A bit of grace when you need it the most.  The gift of grace that tells us we really aren't worthy of this gift, but we get it anyway.  An unexpected gift that we don't deserve.  A gift that tells us we are loved just the way we are.  That's the real gift.  A Priest friend of mine would tell me every time we met, "God loves you, just the way you, right now."  That's grace!  God could never love me more than he does right now, which means God could never love me less... ever.  Grace.  Abundant, unexpected gifts of Grace.  I wish you amazing Grace this fourth day of January.  That's all the news from the Carondelet Garden.